Researchers from the global non-profit, SkyTruth have published a new report, identifying and exposing the biggest sources of pollution from offshore oil, including oil leaks, transportation emissions, and methane flaring, as well as the most polluted locations across the global ocean.

This groundbreaking investigation has plotted and ranked the world’s most polluting offshore oil and gas facilities using advanced satellite technology to highlight the worst persistent oil slicks and greenhouse gas emissions around the world.

Until now, this alarming pattern of environmental damage wrought by the oil and gas industry has gone largely undetected. The report – Exposing the Environmental Costs of Offshore Oil: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Oil Slicks, and Flaring – provides the first-ever public data about threats from offshore oil infrastructure. And it’s just been brought to the world’s stage.

The report has been launched to coincide with the 2025 Our Ocean Conference where the team behind the investigation has been presenting its findings as part of the Digital Oceans: Actions for Advancing Sustainable Ocean through Digital Technology theme of the annual event.

Based on 16 months of monitoring, the report comes with a series of downloadable maps and charts of the top polluters across the globe. It’s research that has been conducted using Cerulean, the world’s first free, publicly available technology developed by SkyTruth that uses artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to track ocean oil pollution and identify the potential sources of it.

“Despite the urgent climate crisis, offshore oil production continues to expand globally, often with little public scrutiny,” said Christian Thomas, Geospatial Engineer at SkyTruth and co-author of the report. “By making this critical data publicly available, we aim to empower communities, regulators, and advocacy organisations with the information needed to hold polluters accountable and ensure marine protection.”

Among the report’s key findings, several sources of what it has called chronic oil pollution have been identified. Ten of these stood out in particular for the frequency and extent of oil slicks, collectively responsible for at least 216,000 gallons of oil (over 5,100 barrels) detected on ocean surfaces. Floating production and storage vessels also rank among the most severe polluters, accounting for four out of ten of the most polluting assets observed globally, despite making up a small fraction of the total infrastructure.

The most polluting offshore oil infrastructure is, however, concentrated in West Africa, in particular Nigeria, which hosts five of the ten most polluting floating production and storage vessels observed by the study. The United Kingdom, Norway, Angola, and the United Arab Emirates also host multiple facilities among the worst polluters.

In 2023, offshore oil and gas operators flared over 23 billion cubic metres of natural gas, generating approximately 60 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. The largest sources of this were linked to infrastructure in Iran, Nigeria, and Mexico.

Finally, vessel traffic to offshore oil and gas facilities generated at least nine million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in the same year. That’s a carbon footprint larger than many small countries.

“Our research demonstrates that policymakers must account for the substantial site-specific pollution burden imposed by offshore fossil fuel development,” said the report. Floating production and storage vessels and other infrastructure are causing significant local contamination globally, with demonstrable impacts on marine ecosystems and significant risks for food security, public health, and coastal economies.”

The report has gone on to highlight that while nearly three quarters of new oil production volumes are located offshore, monitoring these operations is more crucial than ever. Unlike transient shipping pollution, these stationary facilities cause recurring environmental damage to the same ecosystems and communities.

“As satellite technology and open-source analytical tools continue to advance, they will drive unprecedented transparency and accountability in this historically opaque sector of the fossil fuel industry,” said Thomas. “The increasing deployment of floating production and storage vessels to access deeper offshore reserves indicates this is not merely a legacy issue with aging infrastructure, but a growing environmental challenge.”

Click here for more from the Oceanographic Newsroom.